The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(42)

His left eyelid flickered and then the right, and those blue eyes opened and stared right into mine. Had he heard me calling him back?

“Wild.” His voice was hoarse, a mere croak of my name.

“Yeah?”

“Personal space, it’s a real thing.”





Chapter 16





I stared into Ethan’s eyes a beat longer as his words sunk in, the air in the tent lightening up as I realized we’d done it, we’d saved him. “Personal space might be a thing when you aren’t dying,” I said as I pulled back. “You get no say when your heart isn’t beating, Wonder Bread.”

His eyes widened, and he took a slow breath. “Was I dead?”

I nodded, not able to say we’d brought him back. Because even in my head the truth sounded like a lie. If we could bring Ethan back, why hadn’t someone tried to bring Tommy back? Why hadn’t I found Rory and brought him back?

The entrance to the tent flapped again, and this time it opened. An older man with an air of power and prestige strode into the room. Ethan’s father. A woman of similar age hurried in behind him, worry etching her eyes. His mother.

“No, not my boy,” she said, makeup making tracks down her face. It was probably the only time she’d ever present herself like that. She was beautiful, like Ethan, and put together.

Grief, thicker than over-floured gravy filled the room, sucking the air out of it.

Wally put a hand on my shoulder and the four of us stepped back, giving Ethan’s parents space.

“Time to leave,” Pete said. I nodded my agreement and we slipped out of the tent as Ethan’s mother fell on him, sobbing and kissing his face.

Outside the tent, I took a deep breath. Crazy, this whole place was crazy, but it was sinking in that we’d done it. We’d finished all the trials.

And we were still alive. All of us.

A flash of Gregory’s face, his hands grabbing at mine through bars that held him back, cut through the haze of the concussion. Had I seen him? I lifted a hand to my head, but it was still stuck to the wand as if glued.

“You’ve got to get that looked at.” Orin grabbed my hand. No, not glued, scorched.

“I can’t even feel it,” I said, turning my hand to get a good look it, the crackled skin, the black char in places. Part of me knew it was shock, the other part was morbidly fascinated that this burned up hand was mine. Orin and Wally shook their heads in unison.

“That’s because your hand is nearly dead,” Wally said. “We’ve got to get you to a healer right away.”

I followed her toward another medic tent, empty except for a healer I didn’t know. A guy with messy brown hair, glasses, and a pair of light green scrubs. He took one look at my hand and sat me down on the edge of a bed, his hands cradling mine. “How did you do this?”

“The trial?” I offered.

He shook his head and pushed his glasses up with a finger. “No, what spell?”

“Bascilium—”

He cut me off, slapping his hand over my mouth, his eyes wide. “You used that spell?”

I shot a look to Wally and she nodded for me. “It was the only chance we had.”

The healer blew out a shaky breath. “The director is going to want me to report this.”

“Will it get me kicked out?” I asked.

“No. Not if you can handle a spell like that.” He readjusted his hands on mine and began to mumble words under his breath. His magic was immediate, the glow of it lighting up the small space between us with a faint green light.

I sucked in a breath as the healing started, the pain sharp as the burn wounds were reversed, the skin reforming with each second. I closed my eyes and lay back on the bed.

To block the pain, I focused on what was going on around us, outside the tent.

“You said he was dead,” Mr. Helix roared.

“Then you should be happy he isn’t!” Mara yelled back. “When I left him in the tent, there was no heartbeat. He was dead! You felt that magic holding us back, we all know—”

“That is impossible. Bringing people back from the shadow of death…”

“Not impossible. Forbidden.” The director’s voice cut through all the yelling. “And if I am correct, his teammates were the ones who did it.”

My eyes flew open and I stared at Wally, Orin, and Pete. “Go, get out of here!” I growled at them, a sharp stab in my hand making me grimace.

Wally shook her head, fatigue heavy in her words. “They will know it wasn’t you alone. There is no point in running. The odds of us escaping…very low. I don’t know what they would be exactly but very low indeed.”

The two guys stood up a little straighter as the tent flapped open and Mr. Helix strode in, followed by the director. She looked damn good for late seventies—closer to her early fifties at best, maybe even a rough forty something.

Mr. Helix was a big guy, though not as muscular as his son. “You four…saved him?”

The healer let go of my hand and I flexed my fingers, opening and closing them on the wand. I held it out to his father. “We did what we had to do. He is part of our crew.”

He stared at the wand in my hand. “I do not like being in others’ debts.”

I stood slowly. “Would you rather we had let him die?”